The Empty Manger

I look at the manger we set up every year.
It is as old as me, maybe a bit older.
It is so special to me, rustic, simple, unique.

It has been the mainstay of our family Christmas traditions.
It was where I would bring my small toddlers and talk about Baby Jesus.
It was where my young children wanted to play, carefully.

They would pretend to be every major character in the Christmas story.
They would even be the animals keeping Baby Jesus warm.
The one animal they were not supposed to touch was the camel.

He was already over-touched by me!
He is the largest figure in the set and never seemed to want to stay upright.
Perhaps that is because his leg has been mended numerous times.

You can even see a glimpse of the steel rod that is holding his leg together.
This year, my husband suggested that I replace the camel.
My youngest son and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Where do you find fifty-four year old replacement parts?
Why would you want to?
The manger will one day belong to my youngest son, since he sets it up each year.

All these years he has never set it up the same way twice.
Mary and Joseph may be in the far corner of the manger with the cow nearby.
The three kings are usually off by themselves, since they are traveling.

This year the shepherds are standing all together.
You can almost see them looking up at the angel of the Lord.
You can almost hear the angels’ voices.

Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.
(Luke 2:14)

The one thing I am glad about is that Baby Jesus is in the manger.
Growing up, even though the manger was displayed, the manger was empty.
Baby Jesus was nowhere to be found!

Baby Jesus was put in the manger on Christmas Eve, but I wanted Him there all the time.
I never understood why my mother insisted I wait until Christmas Eve.
She kept him tucked away behind the manger in a place I never knew until I was older.

It was awful to see the empty manger.
Without even knowing then what Jesus’ birth really meant, I knew He needed to be there.
I promised myself that I would never look at an empty manger again.

Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and promiscuity.”
(Ezekiel 23:35)

People have tried, and are still trying, to cast God behind their back.

Keep God out of our schools.
Keep God out of our government.
Keep God out of our lives, until we need Him; then He can come back in again.

God doesn’t work that way.
God sent His Son, Jesus, to be born of a virgin.
The Son of God became man.

How do you compress all that Holiness and Majesty into a human body?
God did just that in Jesus’ birth.
Emmanuel. God with us.

Even the name tells us that God desires to be WITH His people.
No casting off; no casting away; no casting behind.
With, in the midst of, one of us!

Empty manger?
How grateful I am that it was not!
Fully God and fully man in a helpless little baby.

Smelly animals.
Crude manger.
Rags wrapped loosely around Him.

No, Jesus belongs in the manger, for a time.
In the fullness of time, He came.
He grew and learned; He taught and preached.

He loved and healed.
He challenged and exhorted.
He suffered and died.

Empty manger?
NO!

Empty tomb?
YES!
Praise God…YES!

The empty tomb that brought us salvation.
Salvation when we believe in the finished work of Jesus.
The finished work of the God-man; the completed work of the Baby yet King.

In Your love You kept me from the pit of destruction;
You have put my sins behind Your back. (Isaiah 38:17)

Imagine that!
God puts our sins behind His back.
Not tucked away to bring out and remind us about at another time.
GONE!

Forgiveness.
All because of a full manger and an empty tomb!